Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 1519 - 3. Cost-benefit analysis

Top: Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
Up: Requests For Comments
Up: RFC 1519
Prev: 2.2 Distributed allocation of address space
Next: 3.1 Present Allocation Figures

### 3. Cost-benefit analysis

This new method of assigning address through service providers can be put into effect immediately and will, from the start, have the benefit of distributing the currently centralized process of assigning new addresses. Unfortunately, before the benefit of reducing the size of globally-known routing destinations can be achieved, it will be necessary to deploy an Inter-Domain routing protocol capable of handling arbitrary network and mask pairs. Only then will it be possible to aggregate individual class C networks into larger blocks represented by single routing table entries.

This means that upon introduction, the new addressing allocation plan will not in and of itself help solve the routing table size problem. Once the new Inter-Domain routing protocol is deployed, however, an immediate drop in the number of destinations which clients of the new protocol must carry will occur. A detailed analysis of the magnitude of this expected drop and the permanent reduction in rate of growth is given in the next section.

In should also be noted that the present method of flat address allocations imposes a large bureaucratic cost on the central address allocation authority. For scaling reasons unrelated to address space exhaustion or routing table overflow, this should be changed. Using the mechanism proposed in this paper will have the fortunate side effect of distributing the address allocation procedure, greatly reducing the load on the central authority.

3.1 Present Allocation Figures
3.2 Historic growth rates
3.3 Detailed Analysis

3.3.1 Benefits of the new addressing plan
3.3.2 Growth rate projections

Next: 3.1 Present Allocation Figures

Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 1519 - 3. Cost-benefit analysis